(THIS IS A BONUS CHAPTER, don't forget to read Chapter 39 )
The Blazing Lizard before Kaelen took a shuffling step back, its obsidian-black scales shimmering like polished volcanic rock under the glow of the cave's runes. A crest of fire trailed along its spine, flaring with each hiss of its forked tongue. The beast's molten-gold eyes were fixed on him.
Kaelen spun a dagger in his hand and then shot forward, pushing aether into the grooves of Shadow Dash. His for...
2025-12-17 05:10:02 +0000 UTC
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Seth, Nightmare, and Colossus advanced through the tunnel, the air growing thick and heavy. A sickly green and blue light pulsed from fluorescent mushrooms that had sprouted like parasites from the cracks of the stone walls, casting just enough of a glow for the three of them to see the path ahead. A shared sense of euphoria vibrated through their bond.
Before them, the narrow passage finally opened into a vast chamber bathed in a much brighter light. The hall of rock was immense, nearl...
2025-12-17 05:05:01 +0000 UTC
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Seth followed Elena toward the group of students waiting by the large caravan, which was hitched to the four powerful Stormlight Horses. Professor Reat, Director Ryehill, and Intendant Lacet stood with them. Marine was the first to speak, a broad smile breaking across her face. "Seth! Where were you—oh, your beautiful eyes! They're back!"
"Yeah, they came back a few minutes ago," Seth answered, stopping beside Elena and Brandon.
"Where did you go after the fight?" Marine asked w...
2025-12-15 05:05:01 +0000 UTC
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"Father?" Elena blurted out, stumbling as her father shoved her aside, his hand already closing around his sword's hilt.
Before Seth could move, Marcus pulled something from his Endless Pouch—and the cacophony of the street vanished. The world around them sank into a muffled, unnatural silence. An Isolating Crystal, Seth realized.
Then it hit. A suffocating wave of bloodlust surged out of the Alchemist, locking Seth's body in place just like it did in the Champions of C...
2025-12-12 05:05:00 +0000 UTC
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(Be advised that this book contains a dark setting, strong romance, and explicit scenes. I do not recommend it for anyone under 18.)
Rise of the Unbound / Book 1: The Blade and The Pawn
Seth waited in front of the Primalist Den as the sun of the Rift reached its highest point above him. Marcus arrived a few minutes after Seth, yet the old Alchemist barely glanced at Seth before turning away. "Come."
Seth hurried to keep pace as the old man led him through the crowded thoroughfares. They'd just begun crossing a particularly opulent district of Asethka when the sound of a large, excited crowd drew Seth's attention.
In the center of a vast plaza, hundreds of p...
2025-12-10 05:05:01 +0000 UTC
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As Marcus left, Seth immediately rushed toward the Primalist Den next to the Adventurers Guild's outpost. With every step that brought him closer, he could feel his heart beating faster.
The moment he entered, his jaw nearly hit the floor. The place was filled to the brim with people, all chatting, eating, drinking, and laughing at every table. Wooden pillars supported the ceiling, and a set of stairs on the left led to the upper floors. In the back, Seth saw a desk bathed in the yellow...
2025-12-08 05:05:09 +0000 UTC
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(Be advised that this book contains a dark setting, strong romance, and explicit scenes. I do not recommend it for anyone under 18.)
Rise of the Unbound / Book 1: The Blade and The Pawn
Seth's breath hitched, yet before a word could escape his lips, another man stepped into the room. Like the others, he wore the same black gown that flowed from his neck to his ankles, and his feet were shod in soft-soled slippers that made no sound on the stone floor. He looked to be in his forties with only a few wrinkles around his purple eyes.
The man bowed slightly to Marcus before introducing himself: "I'm Alfred, an earl of the Oracles' Guild. The director of the establishment he...
2025-12-05 05:05:02 +0000 UTC
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Seth jogged down the cobblestone path to catch up with Marcus. As he ran, he couldn’t help but feel the extreme density of the aether on his skin. "How the hell can a city be so big?" he said as he glanced at the gigantic city sprawled out on his left. "That's absurd."
"It's old," Marcus answered without breaking his stride. "People have been coming to settle here for decades and decades."
"Still."
Seth's gaze drifted over the endless sea of rooftops before landing o...
2025-12-03 05:05:01 +0000 UTC
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The Champion of Chaos' Oskon headquarters felt both familiar and strange to Seth. It had the same lived-in, comfortable feel as the one in Trogan, with worn wooden furniture, walls cluttered with beast-hunting trophies and mismatched gear, and the scent of old leather and oiled steel. But this place was smaller, and a circular hearth of dark river-stone dominated one wall.
Orwen dropped a heavy, frothy mug of ale onto the table in front of Seth.
"It's barely noon," Seth said, eyei...
2025-12-01 05:05:01 +0000 UTC
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The hammering heartbeat in Seth's ears muffled the voice of the director. In an instant, aether flared through the grooves of both Beastmaster Rage and Huntbound Rush. The energy didn't just flow: it rammed into the spells' structure with the power of a tsunami, scouring the channels and forcing them to adapt. There was no hesitation, no finesse. Only an absolute and overwhelming force.
Seth's legs kicked the ground with explosive power, propelling him forward. Ahead, the Rogue's cruel ...
2025-11-28 05:05:01 +0000 UTC
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So, some people on Royal Road have been asking for art of Colossus, and since I’ve already begun working on Book 3, I ended up making a cover for it. Because I’ll be posting it in a spoiler tag on Royal Road when Colossus is revealed, I figured it would be fair to share it here first!
Since I can’t use spoiler tags here, the best solution I found is to share a Postimg link; you’ll have to click it to view the image.
There is a small spoiler on the...
2025-11-26 20:24:48 +0000 UTC
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The annihilation of Kastal's Rank-40 bracket was somehow currently faster and even more brutal than that of the Rank 60s. The first combatant of the empire, the axe-wielding Warrior who had defeated Brandon, went on to humiliate a Rank-40 Rogue from the Oskon Academy before finally being taken down by one of the Sidera students. The second and third Bridani fighters crushed two and three opponents respectively, ensuring that each left with a scar or an injury.
The only bright spot for K...
2025-11-26 05:08:01 +0000 UTC
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What followed was a complete decimation. One by one, the Rank-60 students from Sidera, Trogan, and Oskon Academies were called to the sand, and one by one, they were crushed. The second fighter of the Bridan Empire, a hulking Crusader, defeated three of Kastal's fighters before his barrier finally gave out. The third, a Pyromancer with absurdly high Arcane Power, almost burning two opponents to death before getting the protective layer covering himself shattered.
Students from Kastal's ...
2025-11-26 05:05:01 +0000 UTC
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The woman who strode through the coliseum moved with a predatory grace that commanded attention. She appeared to be in her forties, her face a mask of timeless beauty, and her presence so dominant it seemed to bend the air around her. A tight-fitting robe of imperial blue clung to her athletic frame, and her jet-black hair was swept up into an intricate tuck, which was held in place by a series of crimson rods that looked more like weapons than ornaments.
As she advanced, Seth noticed s...
2025-11-24 05:05:01 +0000 UTC
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The cobblestones of Oskon blurred under Seth's running feet. Ahead, the colossal form of the city's arena rose against the morning sky, a monument of white stone and grand arches that made Trogan's coliseum look like a provincial sparring pit. Why the hell did Professor Reat leave without me? he thought, panting as he dodged a slow-moving merchant's cart.
He had gotten lost. Again. Even if he had left the inn with plenty of time, the capital's identical-looking streets had twis...
2025-11-21 05:05:01 +0000 UTC
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The last vestiges of twilight painted the sky in bruised shades of purple and orange as Seth ran, his boots thudding a steady rhythm against the hard-packed earth of the northern plains. The lights of Oskon's walls were a distant shimmer behind him, and the vast grasslands stretched out in every direction with a silence broken only by the whisper of the wind through the swaying grass.
He finally came to a halt, judging the distance to be sufficient. No one would see them out here. With ...
2025-11-19 05:05:01 +0000 UTC
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After turning around endlessly and getting lost twice in the labyrinthine streets of Oskon, Seth finally found the chaotic expanse of the main market. He pushed through the growing stream of people, his gaze sweeping over the shops of the capital city.
'That was weird, what happened with that woman,' Nightmare said through Link into Seth's mind, muffling the noise of the crowd around them. 'That, and how you told me to kill those nobles last month… I'm telling you, that F...
2025-11-17 05:05:02 +0000 UTC
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(Another extra-chapter! Don't forget to read chapter 23 first!)
_____
The caravan jolted to a final, gentle stop, the hum of the aether hovering on its surface fading into silence. Seth pushed himself up, following the others as they filed out into the evening light, the sky painted in stripes of red and purple. He stepped onto a platform of pristine white stone and blinked, then took in the caravan station of Oskon. The place was immense, a sprawling hub of activity under a soari...
2025-11-14 05:08:00 +0000 UTC
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Seth fell into step behind Professor Reat, the man's dark instructor uniform gleaming in the sunlight as it contrasted with the dull clothing of the people around them. The man navigated Trogan's marketplace's throng with ease, his long strides never breaking and forcing Seth to hurry to keep pace. The professor glanced over his shoulder to look at Seth and sighed.
"I know you have your secrets," he began, his voice low enough not to carry too far but high enough to be heard despite the...
2025-11-14 05:05:01 +0000 UTC
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The two days leading up to Seth’s departure for Oskon were grueling, exasperating, and quite painful. He, Nightmare, and Colossus took on the Knight Skeleton again and again… and they lost again and again. The Undead summon was a horror to fight. Its absurd Toughness, combined with its defensive spell that cloaked it in a spectral, damage-reducing armor, made it seemingly impossible to slay before it destroyed either Colossus’s or Seth’s protective barrier. To make matters worse, even...
2025-11-12 05:05:01 +0000 UTC
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(Be advised that this book contains a dark setting, strong romance, and explicit scenes. I do not recommend it for anyone under 18.)
Rise of the Unbound / Book 1: The Blade and The Pawn
(Extra Chapter: Don’t forget to read Chapter 20 first! And why the extra chapter? Well, I got a ton of new patrons last week, one of them even joined the Champions of Chaos Tier! Thank you all so much for your support!)
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The familiar feeling of dense aether greeted Seth as he stepped into the Epic Training Chamber. At the center of the twenty-yard-wide room, a translucent azure orb pulsed atop the four-legged stand, casting dancing shadows across the gray-s...
2025-11-10 05:08:01 +0000 UTC
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Seth let out a heavy sigh, the last vestiges of Intermediate Identify’s aether receding from his eyes. He’d just scanned every single member of Elena’s squad, and the results were sobering. Of the fifty Wielders arrayed on the field, a staggering forty-one of them were Rank 60—the absolute peak of the Iron Tier.
Marine stood poised near Elena, a marvelous bow crafted from some pale, white wood slung across her back and two short, wicked-looking daggers strapped to her thigh. She...
2025-11-10 05:05:02 +0000 UTC
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With a groan, Seth pushed himself up, his muscles aching from the fight. The small forest clearing nearby was a wreck. The ground was scarred with deep trenches from both the Gale Hawk’s wind blades and the Thorn-Legged Mantis’ strikes, and the metallic tang of blood lingered in the air.
His eyes then moved down once more to his hand to look this time at his aether attunement.
Sensing: Mid-Iron ...
2025-11-07 05:05:01 +0000 UTC
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The air in the forest was thick with the scent of pine, sunlight filtering in dappled patterns through the dense canopy. Seth crept silently out from behind the rough trunk of a massive oak, Nightmare invisible by his side. Colossus remained safely inside the teardrop necklace; his stony bulk wasn’t exactly suited for stealthy approaches.
Ahead, in a small clearing, a Thorn-Legged Mantis was cleaning off the blood from its last kill. The beast was an unsettling sight—roughly the siz...
2025-11-05 05:05:01 +0000 UTC
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The grim work afterward didn't take long. Seth dragged all four bodies into the dark recesses of a nearby narrow alley and quickly looted them of their Protecting Belts, coins, and any other obvious valuables. Then, he had Nightmare use Shadow Bite to corrode the nobles’ faces until they were entirely unrecognizable masses of ruined flesh and bone, making sure they couldn’t be Identified anymore, while Colossus dug a quick hole to hide them.
Once the task was done, Seth sli...
2025-11-03 05:05:01 +0000 UTC
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Not wasting a single second, Seth immediately cast Intermediate Identify on the duo in front, then the pair behind him.
Quill Seralp
Class: Warrior Rank: 30 (Low-Iron)
Subclass: - &n...
2025-10-31 04:05:02 +0000 UTC
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The next day, Seth had slipped back into the rhythm of academy life. Classes, drills, and sparring filled his morning once more. In the backyard of the academy, the squads’ skirmish ended, and he pushed himself up from a crouch, brushing dirt from his gray training uniform. Beside him, Henry did the same, sweat glistening on his shaved head.
"Man, the squad’s teamwork is really getting better and better," Henry said, grinning, his usual enthusiasm undimmed. "And Nightmare? He's such...
2025-10-29 04:08:01 +0000 UTC
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